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U-19 WC final: Rain interrupts India's chase of 217-run target

Feb 03 2018 by Elias Hubbard

Australia, in this tournament, have been challenged only twice: in the quarter-final against England, in which they defended comfortably a paltry 127; in their first match against India, which they lost by 100 runs.

So, the talk in the Aussie camp has been around having to negotiate Nagarkoti and Mavi, two of the fastest bowlers in the competition who have consistently clocked in excess of 140kph.

India not only remained unbeaten throughout the tournament but also became the first nation to win the trophy four times.

The Australian team has gone through a number of sessions plotting and planning against India.

India were placed in Group B, along with Australia, Zimbabwe and Papua New Guinea.

This is the fourth timeIndia have won the U-19 World Cup, the previous three times being in 2000, 2008, and 2012, under the leadership of Mohammed Kaif, Virat Kohli, and Unmukt Chand respectively. The services of the Indian middle order were rarely used in the tournament.

India looked confident chasing a par total. All the members of the Indian cricket squad, including skipper Prithvi Shaw and Man-of-the-tournament Shubman Gill, will be rewarded Rs 30 lakhs each as cash money. "Cricket is a amusing game and good balls will always get good players out¸" Sangha said.

Australia captain Jason Sangha told the ICC's official website: "The 100-run loss does not bother me at all".

In the batting department, all eyes will be on Shubman Gill.

However, Harris has also acknowledged India'sbowling attack, "It's great to be talking about India and not talk about spin!" Their new-ball bowlers - Zak Evans and Ryan Hadley, did not feature in the XI in that game, and their spinner Lloyd Pope is high on confidence after the stunning show against England. There is little that India would worry about, having been unbeaten in the tournament so far, except the law of averages which for the time being is the only possible hurdle.

For the boys-in-blue, Ishan Porel, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shiva Singh and Anukul Roy took two wickets each while Shivam Mavi grabbed one. Will Sutherland gave Australia the first breakthrough getting Shaw bowled.

ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup final match will begin at 6.15 am IST onwards on Saturday. "The boys have done so well, and I am sure they will work hard and climb the ladder and represent the senior team in the future", said Vinod Rai.

Australia's batting will revolve around the likes of skipper Jason Sangha, Jack Edwards and Nathan McSweeney.